[Excerpted from John Ankerberg, John Weldon, “When Does Life Begin? And 39 Other Tough Questions About Abortion” (ATRI Publishing, 2001)]
(Continued from Part 2)
Last time we saw:
(D) Scriptures which indicate that all human life belongs to God;
(E) Scriptures that teach we must defend and protect the weak, the defenseless, the innocent, the needy and the unwanted;
(F) Scriptures which indicate that God has a plan and purpose even for the handicapped and deformed.
We now continue with the seventh point:
Another way to decide whether abortion is a justifiable practice is to think through the implications of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. The question is, at what point was the personhood of Jesus present?
In brief, it had to be present at the point of conception. Both the New Testament and the doctrinal creeds of the church affirm that God became man at the point of conception. The Eternal Son of God became Incarnate in Mary’s womb. Christ’s personal history on earth began not when He was “born of the virgin,” but when He was “conceived by the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:31, 35).
It is significant that God chose to begin the process of incarnation at the point of conception rather than at some other point. But Christ “had to be made like his brethren in all things” (Hebrews 2:17); His human history, like ours, had to begin at conception.
Lawyers Herbert T. Krimmel and Martin J. Foley argue that because Jesus was fully present at conception so must every other person be as well:
“Now, given the facts established by Holy Scripture that (a) Christ was fully God and fully man, and (b) Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost, our argument can be stated succinctly:
“1. ‘Conception’ literally means the process which terminates the initial presence in the womb of that which is conceived (i.e., the single cell entity referred to in biological terms as a zygote). Consequently, when one says that Mary conceived by the activity of the Holy Ghost, one must mean that which the Holy Ghost produced in and through conception was the initial presence of the zygote.
“2. The zygote the Holy Ghost brought about in Mary’s womb was Jesus Christ, true God and true man, in His human nature like man in all things except for sin.
“3. If Jesus (true God and true man) was present in His mother’s womb from the first moment of His conception, then it follows that other men must also be alive and existing as human beings from the first moments of their conceptions; for unless they are the same as Jesus in this respect of their human nature, He would not be like them in every essential human respect except for sin. This is to say, then, that a human being must be fully present as such from the moment of conception.”[1]
Finally, Hebrews 10:5 refers to the body that God prepared for Jesus which can only refer to His body in the womb. “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me.’” (see Isaiah 49:1-7).
Those reading their Bible through the centuries have learned that the human soul is a gift given by God. For some Christians, though, the issue of when the soul infuses the body has become a key point relating to the abortion controversy. Whenever the soul infuses the body, full human life is present. But a debate developed around the Scriptures that describe when God implants the soul into the body.
Some have argued that the Scriptures describe this point as being when the unborn fetus comes into existence at conception, others at viability, and still others have said it is at birth. Additional arguments then developed around the questions: Is the soul inherited from the parents and immediately present at conception, or given by God independent of the parents’ sexual union some time after the body is formed in the womb?
The reason these questions are important is because if the soul does not enter the body until some time after conception, then some would argue that perhaps early abortions are permissible. If it can be shown that the soul is present from conception, then abortion is never permissible.
Christians who have argued that the soul is created individually by God and placed into the baby’s body some point between conception and birth have been known as “Creationists.” Those Christians who argue that each person derives his soul and his body at conception from his parents’ sexual union are called “Traducians.”
The following Bible verses are cited as proof by the “Creationists” that God created man’s spirit, or his soul, individually and placed it into the body at some point between conception and birth:
Genesis 2:7—And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (KJV)
Ecclesiastes 12:7—Then shall the dust [of which God made man’s body] return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (KJV)
Zechariah 12:1—Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.
(Also see Isaiah 42:5, Isaiah 57:16 and Hebrews 12:9.)
But after reading these verses cited by the Creationists, we must admit that we do not know from these texts that the fetus has been endowed with a soul by God from the time of conception, viability, or at birth. All we know is that God is the One who gives man a soul. So these verses by themselves do not help solve the question of, “Is abortion permissible?”
Now let us turn to the other viewpoint that is held by those Christians called “Traducians” who maintain that the soul derives by natural laws of propagation from one’s parents. In other words, they believe each person inherits his soul from his parents just as much as he does his body. They point to the following biblical texts:
Genesis 1:27-28—So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply. (KJV)
Genesis 5:1-3—When God created mankind, He made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them…. When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
Hebrews 7:9-10—And, so to speak, through Abraham even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. (Emphasis added)
But after reading these verses cited by Christians arguing the Traducian viewpoint we must ask, “Is it not possible that both positions present a bit of the truth and that the body originates from the parents while the soul originates from God?” Traducians are forced to admit that there are many verses that support the Creationist viewpoint—that God alone gives the soul. Creationists must also admit that there are some Bible verses that imply that, though God gives the soul, He may have used the means of human propagation to place it in the body.
The key point in terms of the abortion debate is that anyone honestly looking at these verses must conclude that Scripture has not clearly presented the exact moment when the soul is given, only that God does give the soul to man.
Theologians such as Paul K. Jewett, Kenneth Kantzer and John Warwick Montgomery agree. They have concluded that it is not possible to access from the Bible one precise view of when the soul was united with the body. But as we shall see, when these Scripture verses are added to Exodus 21:22-25, the Bible makes it absolutely clear that the life of the unborn child in the womb is as valuable in God’s sight as an adult outside the womb. This causes us to believe that from the point of conception the soul is present, even though no direct Scripture can be cited. We noted earlier that from conception onward the value of life is equal at every point and further, equal in value to adult life. Our conclusion, then, must be that the soul exists from the point of conception, otherwise it would not have equal value in God’s eyes.
(continued in Part 4)